State Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Parkland, explained a key problem that afflicts many in the Legislature: while they’re considered important in Tallahassee and in political circles, that doesn’t mean much to voters on the street.

“There’s not a single person at the dinner table talking about us. We have real responsibilities, don’t get me wrong, and we can make things happen. But we’re not nearly as big as our head thinks that we are, or Tallahassee tells us we are. And so you go up to Tallahassee and everyone says how great you are and it can go to your head, and the truth of the matter is, no one back here is thinking that.

“I can give the greatest speech, the greatest speech on the Senate floor, and not one of my voters will have ever seen it. You’ve got to realize that.

“A vast majority of my colleagues don’t really understand that part of it,” Ring said in an interview with Sun Sentinel reporters and editorial writers. “We tend to think we’re a lot bigger than we are.”

A key to success for a statewide candidacy, Ring said is “you start knowing your name ID is zero. Not everybody knows me.”

Ring said it’s also critical to raise money to get out a message.

And he thinks the message needs to be unique and meaningful.

“I personally believe people are so tired of this standard political rhetoric,” he said. “I promise you jobs. Vote me in. And I just think people are so sick of that. I think if you are going to crash and burn, crash and burn being honest.”

He believes that’s one reason why, for now at least, that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is seen by many in the Republican establishment as the party’s savior for the 2016 presidential race.

“Who knows what’s going to happen in 2016, but he’s got sky high ratings today because when you watch him, they just think he’s himself. They don’t think he’s some prefabricated politician who’s speaking off the teleprompter.”

Ring has clearly given some thought to the subject. He considered running for chief financial officer in 2010 and said he might run statewide in the future, though not in 2014.

He said he doesn’t know exactly what he’ll be doing in 2016, when he’ll have to leave the Florida Senate because of term limits.

“The door is open to anything. I have never said I won’t consider a statewide run, eventually. I could see my self doing that some day 2014 is not my year. It’s not for lots of reasons. No. 1 is I don’t want to get in the middle of two individuals that are going to spend $100 million attacking each other.

“But I do think that should I stay political, in the political world, I think my next step would be a statewide run. That doesn’t mean I stay in the political world by any means. I may continue and grow in the private space. There’s a lot of things I want to do there, a lot of opportunity for me there. And so I certainly don’t want to say that I wouldn’t consider that. I don’t think I have to continue a bigger political career to fulfill myself. I really don’t believe that for a second. But I wouldn’t shut the door, and if I were to run again it would probably be at the statewide level,” he said.

Before turning to politics, Jeremy Ring spent six years as an executive at Yahoo!, the Internet search-engine giant.